Good Day Everyone,
The day after we arrived in Japan we went to spend the day in Kobe with some Japanese friends. This day in Kobe was one of my favourite
days of the trip. The sun was shining, there was no complex and frustrating
train system to master (as the night before in Osaka... You can read about our time in Osaka here), no language challenges
and despite cramming a lot of sights into one day, it was a very relaxed day.
Kobe is just a short train ride from Osaka and is accessible
by both the bullet train and regular trains from Osaka. It is Japan’s sixth
largest city and is very much a cosmopolitan port city, much of which has been
rebuilt after the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake.
In the morning my hubby and I went our separate ways as we
were doing different things. I visited my first Japanese shrine, the Minatogawa
shrine which is on the site of the battle of Minatogawa and in it, is the
enshrined spirit of a military commander. The shrine was in beautiful grounds
and before we went up to the main building we had to wash our hands taking
water using bamboo ladels. At the shrine there was a ceremony taking place and
my Japanese friends explained that it was a bit like a christening which was
really interesting to watch.
From the shrine, we went to the Kobe Port Tower where we got
the most amazing views of Kobe. The Port Tower is a 108 meter high lattice
tower with a 360° observation deck. With its red steel framework it is an
iconic building and a definite must for any tourist for great views over the
bay and beyond.
From the top of the tower, you really get to appreciate the
architectural design of the Maritime museum next door with its rooftop
structure resembling a sailing ship. The museum focuses on the history of
Japanese shipping and Kobe harbour.
We stopped off for a pancake lunch at one of the most
popular pancake places at the Mosaic mall where queuing began before the place
even opened, and reconvened with the boys. Then we made our way to the sight
that I was most excited about visiting, The Kobe Nunobiki Herb Gardens and
Ropeway.
The Herb Gardens are Japan’s largest herb gardens with
around 75,000 herbs and hundreds of different types of flowers including cherry
blossoms. If you’re ever in Kobe then a visit to The Herb Gardens is a definite
must. You can easily spend the best part of a day gently strolling around the
14 gardens as there is so much to see.
We took the cable car (Ropeway) up to
the top of the mountain, taking in panoramic views of Kobe and beyond along the
way. I even managed to snap a shot of the Nunobiki No Taki waterfall as we rode
the cable car to the top station.
Once at the top, we visited the Fragrance Museum where there
was an interesting display of old perfume bottles, including a few which house
some very famous scents.
The Herbal Market shop is a great place to purchase
gifts and we bought a solid lavender perfume for my mum, as well as picking up
some lavender honey for ourselves which was totally delicious :o)
After
wandering around the rose garden, we decided to walk down the mountain towards
the cable car mid-station. The winding walk down the mountain took us past the
herb museum garden, the kitchen garden, the lavender garden, and it was only
when we reached the waterfall patio that we realised that there was no path
across to the big glass houses. As it was such a hot sunny day, most of us
couldn’t face the steep walk back up the mountain, back to where the path forks
leading to the glass houses so sadly I didn’t get to go inside… maybe next
time!
We carried on down the mountain stopping off for some lavender ice cream
and lavender flavoured soda water… a much needed refreshment before getting on
the cable car back to the bottom of the mountain. We could easily have spent
twice as long at the Herb Garden than we did, and I would have loved to have
stayed until it got nightfall and seen Kobe all lit up.
We ended our day at a tofu restaurant by Sannomiya
train station where we were served tofu in more ways than you could imagine, with more courses than we could ever manage to eat, but it was a great
experience.
A couple of days later we came back to Kobe to meet some
different Japanese friends. On that particular day we went to the Sawanotsuru
Sake museum. Kobe’s Nada district is Japan’s best sake (rice wine) producing
region with it’s high quality rice, suitable water and favourable weather
conditions. Being close to Kobe and Osaka enabled the distribution of the sake
in the olden days. This particular sake museum we visited was built in the
1970s but was destroyed in the 1995 earthquake and subsequently rebuilt in
1999. Inside the museum we learnt about the traditional brewing methods and saw
the different types of tools and apparatus used in the production of this specialty wine.
After the sake museum our friends took us to see the Akashi
Kaikyo bridge (my hubby is an engineering geek ;o)), the world’s longest
suspension bridge at 4km long. Akashi Bridge connects Kobe on the mainland of
Honshu to Awaji Island and crosses the busy Akashi Strait. The bridge was
completed three years after the 1995 Kobe earthquake and is designed to
withstand earthquakes measuring a magnitude of up to 8.5. There are tours which
take you up onto the bridge but these are in Japanese and as it was raining we gave the tour a miss, and just marvelled at the
bridge’s beauty from afar. Near the bridge on the Kobe side is a huge outlet
shopping mall where we stopped off for lunch before making our way back to
Osaka.
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| Akashi Kaikyo Bridge |
I hope you enjoyed this little insight into our time in
Kobe. Coming up in the next Japan Journals will be our time in Kyoto. Have you
ever been to Kobe? What was the highlight of your trip?
Love Sheen xxx
